Florida Land Trusts

A Florida land trust holds real estate in a trustee’s name while keeping the beneficial owner’s identity off public records. The trust agreement is private and unrecorded. County property records show only the trustee, not the person who actually owns and controls the property.

Land trusts provide privacy but not creditor protection on their own. A judgment creditor who identifies the beneficial interest can reach it. For investment property, the stronger structure holds the beneficial interest in an LLC: a creditor who pursues the owner gets a charging order against the LLC, not the property.

How a Florida Land Trust Works

A Florida land trust is created under the Florida Land Trust Act. The trustee holds both legal and equitable title to the property and appears on the recorded deed. The beneficiary holds a separate statutory beneficial interest under a private trust agreement that never needs to be recorded or filed with the state.

The trustee’s role is limited to carrying out the beneficiary’s directions. The statute, § 689.071, restricts the trustee to acting only as directed by the beneficiary or the holder of the power of direction. The trustee does not independently manage the property, make investment decisions, or collect rent. The beneficiary retains full authority to direct the trustee to sell, refinance, lease, or transfer the property.

The deed transferring title to the trustee is ordinarily the only recorded document. The trust agreement, the beneficiary’s identity, and the terms of the arrangement stay private. The privacy has a statutory limit at trustee succession. When neither the recorded instrument nor the trust agreement names a successor trustee, the statute requires a recorded declaration of appointment signed by a beneficiary, which puts a beneficiary’s name in the county records.

Privacy Benefits and Practical Uses

A Florida land trust keeps the beneficial owner’s name out of county property records. A potential plaintiff, creditor, or opposing party who searches public records will not find properties held in a land trust under the owner’s name.

Real estate investors use land trusts so tenants deal with a property manager rather than the owner directly. Buyers assembling adjacent parcels for development can conceal their identity to prevent sellers from raising prices once the purpose becomes apparent.

The privacy also deters litigation by making pre-lawsuit asset discovery harder. A personal injury attorney evaluating whether to take a case on contingency will search public records to estimate the potential defendant’s net worth. Properties held in land trusts will not appear in that search.

Does a Florida Land Trust Protect Assets From Creditors?

No. A Florida land trust does not protect the beneficial owner’s assets from creditors. Section 689.071(12) provides that chapter 736, the Florida Trust Code, does not apply to a land trust, so the spendthrift protection that shields other trust beneficiaries never attaches. The beneficial interest is the beneficiary’s own property, and a judgment creditor can reach it through proceedings supplementary.

The privacy does not survive collection. A judgment debtor answers court-ordered discovery in aid of execution and completes a sworn fact information sheet listing assets, including beneficial interests in trusts. A debtor who conceals an interest faces contempt. Section 56.29 also makes the debtor prove that certain transfers were not made to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors. The rule covers personal property transferred to a spouse, a relative, or someone on confidential terms within one year before service. A beneficial interest held as personal property falls within it.

An IRS tax lien automatically attaches to a beneficial interest in a land trust regardless of whether the IRS knows the trust exists. The government does not need to identify the interest first. The lien attaches automatically to all property and rights to property belonging to the taxpayer.

Beneficial Interest as Personal Property

The beneficial interest in a Florida land trust is personal property only when the recorded instrument or the trust agreement declares it to be personal property. Section 689.071(6) makes the designation elective, and if no personal property designation appears, the interests of the land trust beneficiaries are real property.

Transferring a beneficial interest does not require recording a new deed, which keeps the transfer off the public record. It does not avoid documentary stamp tax. Section 201.02(4) taxes a transfer of the beneficial interest for consideration at $0.70 per $100, even though the interest is designated personal property. An assignment made as a gift, with no consideration, has no tax base and owes no stamp tax.

A second documentary stamp rule reaches indirect sales through an entity. Section 201.02(1)(b) applies when real property is deeded to an entity without full consideration. A grantor who then sells any part of their ownership interest for consideration within three years owes documentary stamp tax at the same $0.70 per $100; gifts remain exempt. The rule bears directly on the land trust and LLC structure: a sale of the LLC interests inside the three-year window is taxed even though no deed is recorded.

When the interest is designated personal property, a judgment lien recorded in the county does not automatically attach to it, and the creditor must identify the interest and pursue it separately. Without the designation, the interest is real property, and § 689.071(8)(c) routes lien perfection through the county records.

Separation runs both ways under § 689.071(8)(d). A lien against the beneficiary does not attach to the trustee’s title, and a lien against the trustee does not attach to the beneficial interest. The exception is an encumbrance that by its terms or by operation of other law attaches to both interests.

Florida Land Trust vs. LLC

A Florida land trust and a Florida LLC do different work. The land trust keeps the owner’s name off the county property records but adds no creditor protection of its own. The LLC gives its members charging order protection but no privacy in the property records, because the deed to LLC-owned real estate names the LLC. Holding a land trust’s beneficial interest in an LLC delivers both: title privacy at the property level and charging order protection at the ownership level.

In the combined structure, the trustee holds title to the real estate, an LLC holds the beneficial interest in the land trust, and the owner holds the membership interest in the LLC. County records show only the trustee’s name. The trust agreement, which is not recorded, identifies the LLC as the beneficiary.

A creditor pursuing the owner’s personal assets faces charging order protection at the LLC level. The charging order—a court-issued lien that redirects LLC distributions to the creditor—does not give the creditor management control or the ability to compel a sale of the underlying real estate. For a multi-member LLC, the charging order is the creditor’s exclusive remedy under § 605.0503(3).

The LLC must be structured for that protection to hold. Florida’s exclusive-remedy rule carries exceptions for single-member LLCs, and a creditor can foreclose on a sole member’s interest. In bankruptcy, the trustee can step into a sole member’s rights and have the LLC sell its property, which is what the court authorized in In re Albright. Adding a second member, typically an irrevocable trust, brings the structure under the exclusive-remedy rule.

Real estate investors with multiple properties often create a separate land trust for each property, with each trust’s beneficial interest held by a separate LLC. A tenant’s injury claim on one rental property stays with that property’s trust and LLC rather than reaching the equity in the others. The isolation operates at the entity level: Florida law preserves fraudulent transfer claims and equitable remedies against owners who abuse the structure.

The combined structure fits investment property only. Florida’s homestead tax exemption requires a natural person as the qualifying resident beneficiary, so naming an LLC as the beneficiary of a land trust that holds a primary residence forfeits the exemption. Transferring the beneficial interest to an LLC also resets the homestead assessment cap. An owner’s residence belongs in the owner’s own name or in a land trust with the owner personally as beneficiary.

Who Can Be the Trustee of a Florida Land Trust?

The trustee of a Florida land trust can be an individual or an entity, including an LLC the beneficiary controls. A Florida resident can form an LLC and appoint it as trustee of their own land trust, keeping both the beneficial interest and the trustee role under their control.

The limitation is that Florida LLC records are publicly searchable. The manager and registered agent of a Florida LLC appear on the Division of Corporations website. A searcher who identifies the trustee LLC can look up its manager and connect the property to the owner.

The workaround is an anonymous LLC formed in a state like Delaware or Wyoming, where manager names are not publicly searchable. The out-of-state LLC is the trustee and the property owner controls it, so a public records search does not connect the trustee or the beneficiary to the owner.

Homestead Protection in a Land Trust

A homestead held in a Florida land trust keeps its homestead tax exemption. Section 689.071(8)(h) entitles a beneficiary’s principal residence to the homestead exemption from property taxes, provided the beneficiary qualifies under chapter 196. The statute speaks only to the tax exemption; it does not address the constitutional protection from forced sale.

Florida courts have applied the constitutional protection from forced sale to a home titled in a trustee’s name when the person living there holds a beneficial interest in the trust. The court in Callava v. Feinberg blocked a judgment creditor from foreclosing on a trustee-titled residence. In Cutler v. Cutler, a home held in a Florida land trust kept its homestead character because the constitution does not limit how title is held. The constitution exempts only property owned by a natural person, so an LLC or corporate beneficiary cannot claim the exemption.

The trust agreement should include language giving the beneficiary the right to possess and occupy the property. Homestead status attaches to the home the person actually lives in, so the agreement must make clear that the beneficiary holds a possessory right and not only a financial interest in the trust.

An LLC cannot be the qualifying beneficiary. Section 196.031(1)(a) grants the homestead tax exemption to a person who makes the property his or her permanent residence, so a homestead whose beneficial interest is held by an LLC does not qualify.

TBE Ownership Through a Land Trust

Married couples can hold the beneficial interest in a land trust as tenants by the entireties, adding creditor protection that a land trust cannot provide alone. Section 689.071(8)(b)2. names entireties ownership of a beneficial interest directly. When both spouses are named as co-beneficiaries with TBE ownership, the beneficial interest is shielded from the individual creditors of either spouse.

Both spouses must acquire their beneficial interest simultaneously, and the trust agreement must specify TBE ownership. A beneficial interest initially held by one spouse and later transferred to both may not qualify.

In December 2025, the Florida Supreme Court held in Loumpos v. Bank One that a joint spousal bank account can be an entireties account even when one spouse opened it, but that decision rests on a statute limited to deposit accounts. A land trust beneficial interest is not a deposit account, so the common law unities, including unity of time, still apply to it.

Probate Avoidance

A land trust avoids probate for the real estate it holds. When a beneficiary dies, the trust agreement can transfer the beneficial interest directly to successor beneficiaries without any court proceeding. The property stays titled in the trustee’s name throughout, so no new deed needs to be recorded and no probate petition needs to be filed.

This works similarly to a revocable living trust, but a land trust is limited to real property. A person who owns both real estate and financial accounts typically uses a land trust for the property and a revocable trust or payable-on-death designations for the financial accounts.

Is a Florida Land Trust Revocable?

The trust agreement determines whether a Florida land trust can be revoked or amended. The statute adds one limit. Section 689.071(8)(f) makes a beneficial interest “indefeasible,” and the power of direction “may not be exercised so as to alter, amend, revoke, terminate, defeat, or otherwise affect or change” the enjoyment of any beneficial interest. The power of direction controls dealings with the property; it cannot be used to take a beneficiary’s interest away.

Tax Treatment

A Florida land trust is not a separate taxpayer. All income, deductions, and gains related to the property pass through directly to the beneficiary, and the trust does not file its own tax return. The beneficiary reports rental income, claims depreciation, and deducts expenses on their personal return exactly as if they held the property in their own name.

Deeding property into a land trust does not reset the property tax assessment. For homestead property, § 193.155(3)(a)1.b excludes a transfer between legal and equitable title from the change-of-ownership rules, and § 193.1554(5)(b) applies the same exclusion to nonhomestead residential property, so the assessment cap does not reset. The homestead tax exemption likewise stays with a beneficiary who qualifies under chapter 196.

Transferring the beneficial interest to an LLC is different. That transfer moves beneficial ownership to a new person and counts as a change of ownership, which resets the assessed value to just value. Section 193.1554(5) also counts a cumulative transfer of more than 50 percent of the entity that owns the property as a change of ownership, so a later sale of the LLC interests can trigger the same reset.

Costs and Formation

A Florida land trust requires a written trust agreement and a deed transferring title to the trustee. The trust agreement identifies the trustee, names the beneficiaries, defines the power of direction, and establishes succession terms. The deed must be recorded in the county where the property is located.

Two drafting points decide whether the statute applies at all. The recorded instrument or the trust agreement must declare the beneficial interest to be personal property, or the interest is real property. The trustee’s duties must also stay within the limited duties the statute lists, because a trust agreement that gives the trustee greater duties takes the trust outside the Land Trust Act.

The formation cost is the attorney fee for preparing the trust agreement and the deed, plus the county recording fee for the deed. For investors combining a land trust with an LLC, the total cost includes both the trust agreement and the LLC formation.

The ongoing cost is minimal. There are no annual state filings required for a land trust, no franchise tax, and no registered agent requirement. The trustee may charge a fee for services, particularly if the trustee is a professional third party rather than the beneficiary’s own LLC.

Limitations and Common Mistakes

Naming the same person as trustee and sole beneficiary does not collapse a Florida land trust. Under Section 689.071(5), the merger doctrine does not extinguish a Florida land trust even when the trustee is the sole beneficiary. The reason to appoint a separate trustee is privacy. A beneficiary who is also the trustee puts their own name on the recorded deed.

Transferring mortgaged property into a land trust can trigger the loan’s due-on-sale clause. The federal Garn-St. Germain Act blocks acceleration only for a loan secured by residential property with fewer than five dwelling units. Even then, the exemption covers a transfer to an inter vivos trust in which the borrower remains a beneficiary, and it does not cover a transfer of occupancy rights.

The protection is aimed at the borrower’s own home. For rental property and buildings of five or more units, the statutory protection often does not apply, and the lender’s consent terms in the loan documents control.

The beneficiary does not directly control eviction proceedings. The plaintiff in an eviction is the landlord on the lease, and in the usual land trust that is the trustee, who holds title. The beneficiary directs the trustee to file rather than filing personally, which adds a procedural step that direct ownership avoids.

When Does a Florida Land Trust Make Sense?

A Florida land trust makes sense when the goal is keeping the owner’s name out of the county records and passing the property outside probate. On investment property, adding an LLC as beneficiary layers charging order protection over the privacy. The trust standing alone adds no creditor protection; that comes from the LLC layer and from Florida’s exemptions.

The land trust works alongside the exemptions and entity strategies of Florida asset protection, which protect assets even when the creditor knows exactly who owns them. For exposure beyond what Florida exemptions and LLC structures can hold, an offshore trust moves assets to a trustee outside U.S. court jurisdiction.